Game mechanics from the perspective of a UX Designer

The Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework is a tool for game analysis presented by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek.

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Game mechanics

In their related paper titled as “MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research”, they present the triptych of Mechanics — Dynamics — Aesthetics as the design counterpart of Rules — System — Fun. To my understanding, this framework could not only be applied in the field of game design and research, but to any field that designs and establishes interactions with an end user, in order to enhance user experience. They also give a proper definition to the game mechanic:

"Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms."

First though, a few examples of game mechanics in popular games might give you a clearer insight, of what they are, and how strongly they form the game itself.

Open World // Skyrim by Bethesda Game Studios

Area // Assassin’s Creed series by Ubisoft Montreal

Avatar // World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment

Customizing // Sims by Electronic Arts

Skills // Diablo series by Blizzard Entertainment

Progress // Forza Horizon 2 by Playground Games

Equipment // Dragon’s Dogma by Capcom

Chat Rooms & chat members // League of Legends by Riot Games

Leveling // Diablo series by Blizzard Entertainment

Experience points // Final Fantasy series by Square Enix

Game mechanics in real life applications

At this point, the question from my side is: don’t we have actually such mechanics in real-life interactive applications and systems? Again, a few examples might give a clearer picture of what I mean:

Surgical robots // Role-play, Movement, Resource management, Customizing, Progress, Time-driven results

Car cockpit // Drive modus, Resource management, Customizing

Remote-controlled robots // Avatar, Open world, Area, Movement, Simulation

Education // Role-play, Customizing, Leveling, Experience points, Skills

Gameful but not playful user experiences

The examples mentioned above could be considered as cases of gameful user experiences, in the sense that they make use of mechanics formed in game design. Though, these user experiences could no-way be considered as playful, especially the one in robot-assisted surgery. Thus, what is gameful, is not by definition fun.

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